That would be the second consecutive year of red ink for JAL, Japan's largest airline.

The expected loss stems from a decision not to count 44.7 billion yen ($371.6 million) in deferred tax assets as part of the air carrier's profit, JAL said in a statement.

It raised its sales forecast slightly to 2.3 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) for the fiscal year from an earlier estimate of 2.27 trillion yen. Last fiscal year, sales totaled 2.2 trillion yen.

Streamlining measures help-ed the company achieve significant gains in sales and pretax profit, the carrier said.

The company will release final earnings results on May 9.

The airline said the latest revision reflected an effort to estimate future taxable income more carefully after failing to achieve profit targets in recent years due to "unprecedented" events such as surging fuel prices and the Iraq war.

The latest forecast also includes a special loss of 6 billion yen ($49.9 million) in payment for early retirement benefits as part of its restructuring program, JAL said.